This building interestingly reflects the mood of society. I visited it in
1989 (2 weeks before the collapse of the wall) and it was very formal,
guarded by fierce East German soldiers. It had an eternal flame and was
known as the Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism. I was there
again in`1990 and it was deserted, the flame had gone out and it was full of
garbage. When I last visited it it had the statue of the mother and son and
was guarded by a kindly old verteran covered with happy
badges and wearing a red beret. I wonder what's next?

The Neue Wache, Berlin, showing the classical facade

The interior of the Neue Wache, showing
the Käthe Kollwitz sculpture and the oculus, which exposes the sculpture to
the elements

The Neue Wache (New
Guard) was originally a royal guard house erected in 1816. It
became a war memorial in 1931, and was the focus of many parades
down Unter den Linden during the Third Reich era. The building
to the right is the Zeughaus (Arsenal), which houses a history
museum today.

Two different armies at
the Neue Wache. On the left, Austrian soldiers parade following
the Anschluß of March 1938 (the Berlin Arsenal
(Zeughaus) appears in the background). On the right, East German
honor guards keep watch in the 1980s. (photo on left
from Gerd Rühle, ed., "Das Dritte Reich," Berlin, 1938 ed.;
photo on right courtesy R. Fogt).

On the left is a postcard of the Neue
Wache from 1912 (author's collection); the other photo
shows the ceremonial guard from the 1st Company of Hitler's
bodyguard Leibstandarte at the Neue Wache. (Hans
Quassowski, ed., "Zwölf Jahre: 1.Kompanie SS Adolf Hitler,"
Rosenheim, Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1989). For another
period photo of the Neue Wache, see
http://www.silentwall.com/SceneryBuildings66.html.

The Neue Wache (The New Watchhouse) is a building in central
Berlin, the capital of Germany, dating from 1816. It is located on the
north side of the Unter den Linden, a major east-west thoroughfare in
the centre of the city. The Neue Wache was designed by the architect
Karl Friedrich Schinkel and is a leading example of German classicism.
Originally built a guardhouse for the troops of the Crown Prince of
Prussia, the building has been used as a war memorial since 1931.

King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia ordered the construction of
the Neue Wache as a guard house for the nearby Palace of the Crown
Prince, to replace the old Artillery Guard House. He commissioned Karl
Friedrich Schinkel, the leading exponent of classicism in architecture,
to design the building: this was Schinkel's first major commission in
Berlin.

The building has a classical portico of Doric columns. Schinkel
wrote of his design: "The plan of this completely exposed building, free
on all sides, is approximately the shape of a Roman castrum, thus the
four sturdier corner towers and the inner courtyard." The statuary in
the pediment of the building is intended as a memorial to Prussia's role
in the Napoleonic Wars (known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation). It
shows Nike, the goddess of victory, deciding a battle.

The building served as a royal guard house until the end of World
War I and the fall of the German monarchy in 1918. In 1931 the architect
Heinrich Tessenow was commissioned by the state government of Prussia to
redesign the building as a memorial for the German war dead. He
converted the interior into a memorial hall with an oculus (circular
skylight). The Neue Wache was then known as the "Memorial for the Fallen
of the War." The building was heavily damaged by bombing and artillery
during the last months of World War II.

The Unter den Linden was located within the Soviet zone of
occupation of Berlin, and after 1949 was part of the communist German
Democratic Republic. In 1960 the repaired Neue Wache was reopened as a
Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism. In 1969, the 20th
anniversary of the GDR, a glass prism structure with an eternal flame
was placed in center of the hall. The remains of an unknown German
soldier and of an unknown concentration camp victim from World War II
were enshired in the building.

After German reunification in 1991, the Neue Wache was again
rededicated in 1993, as the "Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of
Germany." The GDR memorial piece was removed and replaced by an enlarged
version of Käthe Kollwitz's sculpture Mother with her Dead Son. This
sculpture is directly under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain,
snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolising the suffering of
civilians during World War II.